Wooting is still experiencing some issues and delays getting its groundbreaking One analog keyboard into mass production and consumers’ hands, but there’s been some progress.
When we last checked in with Wooting, the team had discovered some issues with the switches, optical lens molding, and the top plate from its trial manufacturing run. One of the team, Jeroen Langelaan, made an emergency trip to China to solve the problems with (and at) the factories in Zaoqing and Dongguan.
Fixing Problems
It appears that the switch issue has been solved; Wooting was pleased with the new trial switch but noted that a trial version is not the same as a mass produced version, so the team is waiting with crossed fingers in the hope that the new manufacturing will deliver what the new trial promised. Apparently the factory is a little late delivering this new batch, but Wooting believes that it’s coming any day.
As for the mechanical issues, they’re not solved yet, but Wooting believes it’s at least zeroed in on the problem and can fix it. From a blog post:
The mechanical issue seems to be in the circuit board (PCBA) alignment, the part with all the electronic components, not the bottom casing, top plate or another component. Good news, because we can start purchasing those parts. But, until we’ve received the new circuit board, we can’t cheer yet.
Here again, there’s a bit of “what if,” but the team seems confident it can ship final keyboards fairly soon.
Shipping Problems
Unfortunately, that won’t be by the promised February shipping date. Earlier, Wooting noted that it could still hit that mark, even with the manufacturing delays, if a couple of things fell the right way in time. They didn’t, and then Chinese New Year is landing. During that time, nothing can get done overseas, so it will put all of the manufacturing off by some weeks.
Instead, February is when the One should finally head into mass production. Wooting did reiterate its pledge to ship by air instead of by sea in light of the delays, which is much faster but more expensive, so it’s going to be eating more of the cost of this first batch of keyboards.
But they’re coming, it seems, even if it’s a month later than promised.
